Sunday, May 29, 2011

Congressman Martin Heinrich and State Auditor Hector Balderas are refusing to get down into the mud and attack each other on a personal level. Both men have lovely families and are respected by the communities they serve. Both men have very high ethical standards when it comes to their own personal behavior.

So why does some in the political arena expect and even demand lies and mudslinging? The answer could be that republicans who do have questionable ethical standards in this state wasted no time in spreading lies and falsehoods about other republican opponents.

Democrats in this state sent a clear message at the state convention this year that they expect a higher standard of behavior from their representatives and their candidates. Democrats are turn off and stay away from the polls when they feel that their candidates have no real plans or policies in which to put forth to voters. Democrats expect spirited debates on issues, and they don’t want lies about a candidate’s personal life or political stands on issues.

I am sure that democratic voters are looking forward to hearing how each of our lead candidates views the issues that America faces. We will be happy to hear their plans and models for how to handle difficult issues. We will want to know what they view as the most important issues. We will want to know how they plan on listening to and communicating with the voters that will elect them into office.

When the final vote is cast in the general election for New Mexico U.S. Senator the voters will want someone of high ethical and moral standards to represent them in Washington D.C. Lies and mudslinging have no place in a elected body that has so few members to begin with and who the American voting public invest huge amounts of power and control over this country.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Compromise is the task of taking strongly held beliefs from two opposing sides and settling on the ones that neither side finds most distasteful. It does nothing to move the country forward or to improve the lives of those who are affected by these compromises. It makes the voting public all that much more polarized in their beliefs toward politicians, and it polarizes the political issues which in the long run only make the government that much more polarized.

The purpose of bipartisanship is to come to the table with the concept of identifying what issues must be addressed and then using every resource at hand to provide the best results for the voting public. It encourages new ideas and new approaches to old problems. It is all about building a system with the input of the people being affected without overwhelming the current system in usage, and without overwhelming the people who must live within any system used.

Our government has failed to practice real bipartisanship in any successful way over the past few decades. In some cases you have to wonder if people even understand the difference between the two practices. We have some real economic issues that face our state and our country. We need our elected officials to put aside their political beliefs in order to work with the other side to improve the lives of all of their constituencies.

We need leaders that are willing to lead and not have meetings where they only visit with one side at a time. The time has come to bring or force members of both parties together to fight and hash out new ways to approach old issues. They need to reach out to all the voting public to look for new ideas that might help them solve old problems. One of the gifts Americans have is to be able to develop new systems when the need arises as long as they are asked to take part in the process.

We don’t need tea parties; we need think tanks of our best and brightest individuals. We need to find new ways of approaching old issues. Americans need to know that they will be part of the process and not just the recipients of poorly thought out plans brought about by compromise that fixes nothing.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The voters in New York sent a strong message to republicans yesterday. Keep your hands off Medicare. When democrats fight for the core values of this party they always come out winners.

It is not about attacking the republican in the race but standing up for and fighting for the American people. It is about making sure that our senior citizens are taken care of in their retirement years. It is about making sure our children receive a good education. It is about supporting the leaders of small businesses.

It is not about tax cuts for the rich, tax cuts for the oil and gas companies or supporting large corporations who take their tax revenues out of this country.

At present we have a system where a bipartisan committee reviews candidates for positions on the court bench in this state. Then they pick a short list that goes to the governor for the final choice. After they are appointed judges must run in one partisan race in order to keep the seat. There after they must run in retention elections to keep the seat. At present there are not life time appointments to our state benches.

Questions have arisen in the southern part of the state about the possibility that at least one judge though he could buy a position on the bench. This would require that the judge was able to corrupt the selection process by the bipartisan committee and then buy off the governor. Even with that done then he would have had to still run in a partisan race, so he would also have had to find a way to corrupt the election process to ensure that he was elected to office.

The idea of appointing someone to a seat on one of our courts has been a difficult issue because most judges don’t feel that they should have to run for office. Judges feel that they are above the people they judge and therefore should not be answerable to the general public when it comes to our legal system. Some of our judges drive fancy cars and only socialize with other judges and lawyers. At present the courts are trying to make a new rule that would only encourage that type of behavior because it forbids our judges from taking part in politics unless they are running for retention. This type of behavior only encourages a lack of respect from the general public toward the rule of law. If voters don’t see that the judiciary cares about the people then the judiciary has failed to respect the spirit of the legal system in this country.

The lack of education in this state when it comes to how judges are chosen is appalling to say the least. Judges run for election and then disappear for public view until the next time they are forced to run for retention. They have failed to provide public outreach where they teach the general public about the legal system. They leave that duty up to the jury division of the court system. The lack of education has allowed the public to think that one could just buy a seat on the courts by paying off one powerful political individual.

To thinks that some judges would hope to change the system so that it allowed the governor to appoint judges to the bench without any elections where the voters could have their say only fosters the view that judges are corrupt individuals who don’t care about the voting public. There is no easy answer to these problems since most judges are self absorbed workaholics who hate public life.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

President Obama visited the border in Texas today to highlight immigration issues ahead of both houses reintroducing the dream act which would give a path to legal status to children brought to this country illegally.

Republican need someone to hate in order to drive their perverse causes into the homes of this country. Without the hated immigrates who would they blame for their inability to fix unemployment and rising cost. It was not immigrates who caused the economic downturn which has swept our country over the last few years.

With the republicans in firm control of the U.S. House and having a heavy presents in the Senate the laws needed to fix our country’s immigration problems have no hope of being heard in either house.

The further blocking of real immigration reform can only lead to the death of more children in this country who’s last names are Hispanic.

Facebook Page

http://www.youtube.com/mrycllns

My Cartoons

Quotes:

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die."

The O'Coilean (O'Collins)

'A great host with whom it is not fortunate to contend, the battle-trooped host of the O'Coileain."Abraham Lincoln

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."From NPR Radio"Rosa sat so Martin could walk.Martin walked so Obama could run.Obama ran so our children can fly!"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new."Unknown"Friendship is loving someone no matter what is in their past. It is accepting the fact that they are human and that they have made their share of mistakes over a life time. Trust is being able to tell your friend the most private secret knowing that they will not judge you. A life is not lived well without that one true and trusted friendship."Mary Harris "Mother" Jones

"My job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable"

Albert Einstein

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."Will Rogers"I don't belong to an organized party--I'm a democrat."President John F. Kennedy, Democrat“If by a ‘liberal’ they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people—their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties—someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a ‘Liberal,’ then I’m proud to say I’m a ‘Liberal.’”Martin Luther King Jr.

"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase."

Lora O'Brien

"All I can do is share one person's experiences on her own path, not tell you how to walk yours. If a guru is what you are looking for, find another! If I am a teacher, it is because I am already walking the path that you, Dear Reader, may wish to be on. Although each of us must make our own way, I can put up signs at least, and make the way slightly less hazardous for those who wish to walk a similar path."

C. S. Lewis

"Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives."

A Female Democrat

1/1/10 A new year and a number of future elections to cover. The budget will be a major issue this year and we must work hard to protect the core values of our party.